Last month federal Science Minister Gary Goodyear got himself into a whole heap of trouble by initially refusing to state whether he believed in evolution.

Asked the question by Globe and Mail science reporter Anne McIlroy, Goodyear said he was a Christian, adding: "I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate."

That horrified many in Canada's scientific community, who also accuse the Conservatives of cutting funding for research.

Their concern was Goodyear's response suggested he might be a closet creationist and therefore someone apt to confuse religion with science, clearly the wrong choice for science minister.

A day later, under heavy fire, Goodyear told CTV news -- twice -- he believed in evolution, and while that quieted the firestorm, suspicion of him and his views in the scientific community obviously remains.

And I can understand why. A science minister who refuses to state he believes in evolution -- even if he considers the question hostile -- is worrisome, especially since his answer should have been easy.

All sorts of sensible people believe simultaneously in evolution and that God, or, if you prefer, a guiding intelligence, was behind creation, and therefore evolution.

The difference is that while evolution is based on scientific evidence, belief in God is based on personal faith, and, in the context of one's job, such personal beliefs need not be shared with every Tom, Dick, Harry or Anne who asks.

In other words, when Goodyear was asked whether he believed in evolution, the simple and correct answer, assuming he was sincere in saying a day later that he does, was: "Yes."

Understandably, Goodyear's belated acknowledgement of this didn't satisfy those roused to suspicion by his initial comments, which brings me to my point.

That is, when are the scientists who complained about Goodyear confusing science with religion going to apply the same standard to some of their colleagues -- the high priests of global warming?

That is, scientists who treat anthropogenic (man-made) climate change, not as a science, but a religion?

Take the highest priest of all, "climatologist" James Hansen, Al Gore's science adviser on An Inconvenient Truth, who first sounded the alarm about global warming 20 years ago and has been getting increasingly hysterical ever since.

These days Hansen, whose day job is director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, sounds much like an Old Testament prophet, absolutely certain of the truth and righteousness of his cause, devoid of any doubt, ready to smite the evil non-believers and offering the world salvation from a fiery Armageddon, if only we do exactly what he says.

Among Hansen's recent pronouncements is that democracy isn't working in addressing climate change, that fossil fuel company executives should be tried for crimes against humanity, that he has considered personally targeting for defeat members of Congress insufficiently aghast about climate change, that there should be a global moratorium on new coal-fired energy plants, that these plants are "factories of death" and that "trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains" reminiscent of the Nazis.

And all this from a ... uh ... "scientist"!

Ironically, Hansen, who justifiably accused the Bush administration of trying to censor his views and research, has now shown the flip side of the problem.

That is, scientists who mistake the relatively new field of anthropogenic climate science, in which a great deal is unknown, for a religion in which they possess the absolute truth, and who then lobby for policies to which they say all must bow down, if the planet is to be saved.

Well, in a word, or three, nuts to that.

Hansen sounds like someone suffering from delusions of grandeur, in which case politics would be a perfect line of work for him. He can pontificate to his heart's content while trying to convince enough people to get himself elected.

CLIMB MT. SINAI

Or, since he doesn't seem to be a huge fan of democracy, he can climb to the top of Mt. Sinai (where the Bible says Moses received the Ten Commandments) and write 10 of his own, starting with "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour's Solar Panels," then come back to Earth and try to convince the rest of us to believe.

In any event, one would have thought he would have resigned from NASA long ago as too confining a job for someone with his religious sense of mission. Then again, maybe he likes being a space cadet.